Ragnar Naess
Sculpture at Atlantic Gallery:
40th Year Looking ahead
Several narrative pieces from a series called “Bubble
and the Box” explore ‘thinking outside the box’ or ‘not
thinking outside the box’ and consequences. Other explorations
in Naess sculpture are of the human condition in broader terms. Abstract
small scale sculptures fit in the hand and rest on many sides, whether
curvilinear or planar, play objects. Some sculptures function in practical
ways. Naess says: “Unlike practical pots, sculptures think themselves
into existence at the workbench.”
Naess is represented in collections of The Smithsonian, The Newark Museum
and the Fine Arts Museum of Taipei, among others. Recent publication include
Naess’s writing and work: From Mud to Music by Barry Hall ( A chapter
about collaborating with Tan Dun building a clay orchestra); Marguerite Wildenhain
and the Bauhaus, ed. by Geraldine and Dean Schwarz (Notes from study with
MW). Naess works and lives in Brooklyn, New York.
Nancy Kearing
Kearing paints within the conventions of Non-objective art. She is concerned with colors and forms and the contrapuntal relation between the two. She seeks to convey musical ideas about rhythm, harmony, key and movement using colors and geometric forms as though they were audible -listening for see-ers.
Kearing’s method involves layering elements using paints, powders, crayons, sticks and a variety of painting and drafting tools. She works on large sheets of canvas spread on the floor pouring, splashing, scraping, burying, revealing and drawing intuitively. “Non-objectivity is intuition made audible and visible” wrote Hilla Rebay, the accomplished and influential painter in 1939.